by Zoely Ramanase (ELP 2006)

The Go Green Strategy or “Nde’ho Maitso,” as termed in Madagascar’s local language, is currently being implemented by the food security program, Strengthening and Accessing Livelihood Opportunities for Household Impact (SALOHI), and Rural Access to New Opportunities for Health and Water Resource Management (RANONALA). Both of these projects are led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and are financed by USAID in Madagascar. Additionally, CRS is involved to ensure environmental compliance of these projects as required by USG regulation 216 (US donor) and the Malagasy Government Environmental Chart.

The Go Green/Nde’ho Maitso Strategy is an approach that focuses on environmental reflexes. It consists of anchoring one or several environmental actions to an entity after repetitive implementation. A reflex is not obtained at once. This is valid for both simple and rather complex actions. The exercise is meant to be repeated at least four times through four evaluations. Each evaluation will take place every semester, and after each evaluation, improvements will be given to ensure the mastering of the action, its consolidation and an end result in behavioral change.

The Nde’ho Maitso-Go green strategy has four steps:

The functioning period

The trial period

The consolidation period

The anchorage period

At the end of these periods, it is hypothesized that the environmental reflex and behavioral changes will be attained.

I am the consultant who designed this strategy and has trained the SALOHI and RANONALA teams to implement it at the field level. In addition, I’m currently writing my doctoral thesis on “Environmental Reflex” at the University of Antananrivo in Madagascar where this strategy is the basis of my research. My thesis is expected to be finished in June 2013.